Girls' Night Out
by ExcellentDriver
Summary: When you mix your new girlfriend and your best friend with alcohol and loud music, probably nothing good will come out of it. Post "The Couple in the Cave".
1. Tequila

**I told myself I wouldn't start another story for awhile. I was happy I didn't have any idea about it. That was till I watched the sneak peeks for The Couple in The Cave and saw that scene of Hannah telling Brennan they should go on a girls' night out. And… seems like I miss seeing my mail box full so much now that my other story is over. So, here I am. I should be studying for a freaking test I have tomorrow and I know nothing about, but I had to write this or I couldn't concentrate. **

**It would be a one-shot at first, but it was getting pretty long and the ideas coming, so I guess it will be a short story. I mean, that if you demonstrate interest in reading it.**

**As most of you already know, English is not my first language so I apologize if you stumble in some grammar mistake or typo – you will (I don't work well with betas because I change my mind about the story and edit things **_**all the time**_**, so, I prefer to get the blame for all the mistakes). You can point them out for me in reviews or private messages, it really helps me correcting them.**

**Disclaimer: You already know this, don't you? Will you really make me speak that out again and make me miserable? ****Fine… fine… I don't own Bones.

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The loud music hit Brennan's ear as she entered the nightclub. The place was very crowded, as it was expected to be on a Friday night. While she looked for her companion for the evening, she realized it had been a long time since she went out just to have fun, dance and drink. Now that she started thinking about it, it hit her that the last time she was in a nightclub probably was that day almost six years before when Angela dragged her to that new club and they found a dead man on the wall.

She'd been trying to postpone this event for so long, but when Hannah showed up on her office that afternoon saying Booth would have to spend the night at the FBI and guaranteed her Brennan wouldn't be working, she didn't have an excuse to drop the invitation.

So, there she was.

Brennan noticed a couple of men eyeing her up and down as she walked, even though she was still wearing her trench coat. She raised her brow at them. They couldn't be more than twenty-five-years-old.

"_Temperance! Over here_!" Hannah shouted, waving her hands to make it easier to be spotted. She was sitting on a bench in the bar, her hair shiny and flawless as always. Hannah was nice. Actually, she was very nice. _Maybe _way_ too nice_. Booth seemed happy and comfortable around her and Brennan was happy for him. But she couldn't help feeling her heart being ripped every time she saw the two of them together. Or every time Booth left her alone at the Founding Fathers to have dinner with his lovely girlfriend somewhere else. They would usually ask her to join them, but she never accepted. First, because she knew they were doing that just out of courtesy. Second, the last thing she wanted was be the third wheel in their dinner and third, she really wasn't willing to see the two of them going all lovey-dovey in the table. The best it would do was make her lose her appetite.

The truth was that things changed a lot between them since they came back from Afghanistan and Indonesia. Somehow, she and Booth didn't seem to be as comfortable around each other as they used to be. And rarely Booth would talk to her about something other than work. But she understood that. Now he had Hannah and their relationship was serious. The woman had even moved to his apartment.

Brennan had lost weight in the past couple of months, she didn't feel hungry anymore and Booth wasn't there bothering her all the time and making her eat, nor was he bringing pizza in the middle of the night to the Jeffersonian just to make sure there was something on her stomach. Much less showing up at her door with a takeout bag of thai food. He had someone else to care about now.

Her heart sank at the thought. She missed her best friend. She missed him more than she could handle or admit even to herself.

But he was happy. And she should be happy for him. She should make everything she could to get along well with the woman who made him happy.

The woman she wasn't capable to be.

Or the woman she was too coward to be.

"Hi, Hannah." She managed to smile as she walked between two girls dancing very inappropriately to reach the blonde woman. She tried to get Angela to come with her, but now with her friend married and pregnant, it would be very complicated and Hodgins probably wouldn't endorse the idea. Not that Angela acted upon what other peoples "let" her to do or not, but the last thing Brennan wanted was to cause trouble between her friends. "This place is quite crowded."

"It's Friday night." Hannah smiled, as adorable as she always was. Brennan wondered if the woman ever got in a bad mood. "I'm so glad we were finally able to go out! I've wanted to come here since I came to DC. My colleagues in the _Post_ told me this is the best nightclub in the city."

"It seems very nice, yes. It's vivacious and the music is very stimulating." Brennan sat on the bench Hannah reserved for her. "It's been quite some time since I've been in a nightclub. Last time I went to one with Angela, I got into a fight and we found a dead man hidden on the wall."

"You got on a fight _and _found a dead man?" Hannah's brows furrowed.

"Yes. And we ended up inhaling crystal meth in the process. Not that it compromised my intelligence; I was still able to identify the remains. In fact, it was even helpful to keep us awake in the middle of the night and work on the case. Although, when the effect of the drug was gone, I felt dreadful." Brennan accepted the marguerita the barman handed her. Alcohol wouldn't be bad to start the night. It was the first time she was alone with Hannah.

"Well, let's hope nothing like that will happen today." Hannah smiled. What else was she supposed to say about that? She still wasn't sure how she should act around Dr. Brennan. That woman certainly a very unique person. "Why are you still wearing your coat? It's very hot in here."

"That's true." Brennan took a huge gulp of her drink and started taking off her coat. She was wearing jeans and a low-cut neckline black shirt with black high-heels. She didn't have much time to get dressed up after she left the lab, but she managed to go home and at least put some makeup on her face. Modesty apart, she was looking very nice. "Oh, I love that song!" She commented when _Knock you Down_ started playing and put down her now empty glass on the counter. "Ne-Yo is one of my favorite contemporaneous singer-songwriters."

"You know who Ne-Yo is?" Hannah let out a surprised laugh. "That's surprising, Seeley told me you are completely oblivious when it comes to popular culture. I mean, he told me you didn't know who _Michael Jackson _was."

Brennan felt her body burning inside and she was pretty sure it wasn't because of the effect of the marguerita. So Booth was telling intimate things that happened between them to Hannah? _Mr. What goes on between us is ours? _She clenched her fist. And she surely didn't enjoy the thought of Booth talking about her flaws with other people.

"I'm very fascinated by the music industry, the production and its influence in the society as a whole. And of course I know who Michael Jackson was. I was just being humorous one day with Booth because he said he could see patterns of the cheese in our pizza that reminded him of Mr. Jackson. He started to imitate him and I thought it would be entertaining to keep watching him dancing." She explained more bitterly than she intended. "But I thought he knew I was being facetious. He knows I have quite a collection of CDS, which contains a big diversity of styles."

"Oh." Hannah didn't know what to say, pretty sure she'd already said something she shouldn't. "So, let's go dance?" She added, eager to change the subjected.

"Sure."

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They managed to get to the middle of the dance floor and Brennan started feeling the alcohol's effect in her body after taking a shot of tequila before hitting the crowd. A handsome guy was flirting blatantly with her while she danced to _Stereo Love_ and she felt better than she did in a long time. It'd been almost a year since she spent a night with a man. Stupid Booth and his whole speech of "crap sex X making love". Maybe she would put an end to her celibacy that night. After all, it wasn't that bad of an idea to come with Hannah to the night club. She was having fun.

"I'll go to the bar to get more tequila." She told Hannah when the music switched to a lyric-less song.

Hannah, not willing to stay in the middle of the dance floor alone, followed the anthropologist. It was a bit weird seeing her boyfriend's partner being so outgoing. Temperance Brennan was usually very cold and serious.

"Seeley told me he would meet us here when he left the office." She said once they got to the bar again.

"It's amusing to see you calling him Seeley." Brennan chuckled.

"Why? That's his name." Hannah didn't get the humor in that.

"Booth doesn't like being called Seeley." Brennan commented. "Two tequilas, please." She told the barman.

"What do you mean he doesn't like being called Seeley?"

"Well, if he didn't tell you, I won't be the one to do it. I don't think Booth would appreciate if I shared with you things he told me in private." Brennan licked the salt in her hand and downed her tequila shot, swallowing all the liquid in one gulp and biting the lemon after. "This is good. Reminds me of the first time Booth and I went out to have some drinks, right back on our first case."

"I thought things didn't go well between you two during your first case, at least that was what Seeley told me. He said you didn't see each other for one year after it was over."

"Thirteen months less a week, yes." She corrected her. "He got me arrested at the airport when I was coming back from a dig in Guatemala to obligate me to talk to him, because I refused to have any conversation with him." Brennan started preparing her second shot of tequila in a row.

"Temperance, maybe you should slow down with the liquor…" Hannah's eyes went from the already tipsy woman in front of her to the little glass on her hand.

"I'm _fiiiine_." She waved her hand and downed the shot, not even bothering to lick the salt this time. Hannah winced. "I was quite mad at him, because he got me drunk to fire me and then try to have sex with me."

"_What_?" Hannah almost choked with her water – someone had to stay sober and it was quite obvious she would _have_ to be that person given the circumstances. "Seeley tried to have sex with you?"

"Yes… well…" She placed her elbow on the counter and rested her head on her hand thoughtfully. "I think I was the one who brought up the subject of sex first, but I was also the one who came to my reason before we went that further. Although, he was the one who kissed me and started with the non-sense talk about we going somewhere, wherever this place was. Probably something that his guts told him. Booth always believes in his guts." She said in a low, relaxed tone.

"You guys _kissed_?" Hannah seemed surprised. _Booth never told her that!_ She knew his partner was a very important person in his life, but she always thought he saw "Bones" as his little sister.

"Yes." She nodded and noticed Hannah's worried face. "But you don't have to be concerned; things always go pretty bad anytime we kiss." Brennan sighed sadly. "Besides, Booth is a huge defender of a monogamous relationship, he would never betrayal you."

"So… you kissed more than once?" Hannah asked very slowly. Hopefully Dr. Brennan wouldn't remember that conversation the next day. She was pretty sure the anthropologist wouldn't be so open if she was sober.

"Yeah." She sighed again. "Three times." A silly smile came to her face as she remembered the taste of his lips on hers. Booth was a very skilled kisser. "Well, one of them was just because Caroline, the prosecutor who usually help us on the cases, blackmailed us into kissing under the mistletoe so my father could have his Christmas. But there was definitely tongue contact on that one." She pointed out. "Differently from the last one, which, like the first one, ended up keeping us apart for quite some time." She frowned remembering that horrible night outside the Hoover's building the year before.

Hannah didn't know what to say, so, she kept quiet.

"I find I would like to go back to the dance floor. There was a guy with broad shoulders and quite symmetrical features who was showing interest in dancing with me." Brennan hopped out of the bench and stumbled while walking back to the disco.

Hannah dropped her head on her hands and exhaled slowly. _What was she thinking when she asked Seeley's awkward partner for a girls' night out? _She was way past the phase of taking care of her drunken friends. And Temperance wasn't even _her_ friend. They barely knew each other.

_Oh Crap. _

She disappeared. Hannah got distracted for two seconds and the woman was gone. Seeley would kill her if something happened to his beloved Bones.

_Ugh._

"Hannah!" _Speaking of the devil…_ "Hey." He leaned down to kiss her lightly on the lips and looked around. "Where's Bones?" He asked suddenly worried when he couldn't seem to find his partner anywhere closer to them.

"She was here three seconds ago, she announced she would go back to the dance floor and the next thing I knew, she was gone."

"Gee, Hannah, you shouldn't let Bones alone here. Don't you know how dangerous it is for a woman to be alone in a place like this? It's like a leaving a prey in the middle of hungry lions!" Hannah noticed the annoyance on her boyfriend's face and couldn't help getting annoyed herself. Why did he bother so much if Temperance found some man? "Although, Bones would probably kick the ass of anyone who tried to do anything with her, but still, I'm_ really _not in the mood to bail her out of prison tonight." He rolled his eyes. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing…" Hannah said mysteriously and handed him a bottle of beer. "Let's go find Temperance before she does something she'll regret later."

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**So… are you in, or are you out? ;)**


	2. Beer

**Whoa! (horse). I'm completely overwhelmed with the amazing response this story got and it was only on the first chapter! You guys are amazing! I wasn't even going to update soon, but when I saw all those new e-mails popping up on my mailbox, I just had to sit here and write the next one.**

**I hope you won't be disappointed.**

**Thank you SO much everyone who reviewed! You can't imagine how happy I am everytime I get a new message from you. :)

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Booth almost choked with his beer when he landed his eyes on his partner and suddenly released Hannah's hand.

That was _not _Bones. Because Bones wouldn't dance like that with a random man. Nor would she rest her head on his should. Not on her perfect state of mind, anyway.

And… _was that a beer in her hand?_

"How much did she drink?" He asked Hannah, his jaw clenched. Brennan's hair was a mess and her shirt was exposing way more of her skin than he'd like her showing.

"A lot." Hannah snorted and folded her arms on her chest, watching the scene happening in front of them. _What a great night…_

The man said something on Brennan's ear and she threw her head back to laugh, which gave the jerk the opportunity to wrap his arms around her and bring her closer to him, to what Brennan made no objection.

Booth held the bottle so tightly it almost broke in his hand while all his blood started running up to his face. He would shoot that excuse of a man for trying to take advantage of his partner. She was obviously out of her normal, rational self and the man would do whatever he wanted with her if he didn't drag her out of that club at this exact moment. Brennan might brag to be strong and independent, but Booth knew better than anyone how vulnerable and naïve she could be.

With fire coming out of his nostrils, he shoved the beer back to Hannah and stomped towards the dirty couple.

"_Booooothy!_" An overly excited Brennan greeted him, one of her arms wrapped around what's-his-face's neck.

Booth cringed. _Boothy._ She was calling him _Boothy_. The situation was worse than he thought.

"This is my friend Neil." She introduced the man she was clinging on.

_Friend her ass._

"You're coming with me, Bones." He completely ignored the blonde man standing in the middle of them and grabbed her free arm trying to get her out of Neil's embrace.

"What?_ Nooooooo_!" She whined and pouted_. Oh God, she was worse than that time she smelled crystal meth. _What the hell did she drink?_ Absinthe_? He thought that thing was prohibited. "Leave me alone, Booth! I'm dancing with Neil." She turned her face back to the fun man in front of her. "I'm sorry for my partner's bad manners."

"No, problem, cupcake." Neil said flirtatiously and she smiled.

_Cupcake!_

The man called her _cupcake _and she _smiled_!

Someone called _Temperance Brennan_ 'cupcake' and she _smiled_.

The world had turned completely upside down. Or maybe he was in an alternative universe.

That would be a good explanation to what he was witnessing.

"No, you're not dancing with this…" Booth winced and tried to find a good word to describe the man. "…thing. You're coming with me right now." He said coldly, taking all his strength to not shoot the guy on his crotch so he would never be able to please himself thinking dirty things about Bones.

"I'm not going anywhere." She said stubbornly. "I'm having _fuuuuuuun_." She leaned on Neil's torso while saying that and the man stroked her bare arms.

He snorted and rolled his eyes. It wouldn't be easy.

"Come on, Bones, you've already had way too much fun for the night." He grabbed her arm one more time.

"No!" She took her arm back angrily. "I'm pretty sure Neil here would like to engage in sexual intercourse with me, I can tell he's quite aroused already." She looked down at the man's pants and the bastard didn't even bother to _pretend _to be embarrassed. "And you know what, Booth? That idea sounds very pleasing to me." She stuck up her nose.

_That was enough for him. _

In a fast move, he wrapped his arms around her waist and took her out of Neil's arms.

"_What?_" Brennan complained and tried to get away from Booth's embrace, but it was like his arms were made of steel.

"Hey, dude, can't you see the chick wants me?" Neil said. For Heaven's sake, Brennan really had lost her mind if she was interested in a guy like that. Although… thinking about it, she was basically a troll-magnet when it came to men, so, he shouldn't really be surprised. "Who are you by the way? Her boyfriend? Her _dad_?"

"This 'chick's' name is Temperance." Booth said between clenched teeth. The least the jerk could do was show some respect. "I'm her partner and I'm FBI, so, if you don't want to spend a nice night in jail for trying to take advantage of an inebriated woman, you better back off." Booth snorted, his eyes telling Neil he wasn't kidding.

"You can't get federal on my date's ass!" Brennan complained.

"I'm sorry, dude, but she's really hot and seemed really horny…" The stupid human dared to say.

He really didn't know with who he was messing, did he?

It was more than Booth could take. The next thing he knew, his fist was on Neil's perfect face and the blonde man fell flat on the floor.

In a matter of seconds the crowd formed a circle around them and started shouting in chorus _"Fight! Fight! Fight!"_

"_Don't. You. Ever. Speak. Like. That. About. My. Partner. Again._" Booth pointed his index finger at the man's face, while holding Brennan firmly with his other arm. "Never, you understand me?"

The guy nodded quickly. He wouldn't dare to disgree with this man. He was furious. And obviously jealous. He didn't need much to use that gun of his.

"You _hit_ him? You had no rights! Who do you think you are, Booth?" Brennan screamed angrily over the loud music. "You can't intrude in the middle of my life and act like you owe me!"

"You stay quiet." He said, not in the mood for a little talk.

Booth walked out of the crowd holding his partner close against his body, even though she didn't stop protesting even for a second. "_Let goo of meee._"

"Hannah, take my car back to the apartment." He threw the car key at his girlfriend, who had watched the whole scene but decided to not comment about it yet. "I'll take Bones back home."

"No, you will not." Brennan knitted her brows and finally freed herself from his arms. "I'm completely capable of coming back home on my own." She stepped on her own feet while saying that.

"Yeah, we can see that." He sent Hannah a look that told her to go and she nodded. She didn't get the point of Booth taking Brennan home in a cab when she could perfectly drive the woman home with him, but she supposed he was just trying to protect his friend –or was she something more? She wasn't quite sure after what she saw that night – from more embarrassments.

"I'll see you back at home." She kissed him quickly, fortunately missing Brennan's wincing face as she did that, something Booth didn't miss. "Bye, Temperance."

"Nooooo, take him with you! I don't want him taking me home!" Brennan whined.

"Bye, Hannah."

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"I _hate _you." Brennan told him, almost spitting on his face as she spoke, stumbling on her feet again while pointing a finger at him.

"Yeah, Bones. Whatever." He waved his hands in front of his nose. "Gee, Bones? I think I'll end up drunk only for breathing around you. What the hell did you drink?"

"None of your business." She said stubbornly. "Why do you always mess with my dates, Booth? Why? Because it seems to be a very common thing to happen." She added annoyed. She was really enjoying dancing with Neil.

"Are you calling that almost free porn happening in there a _date_?" He snorted. _She's got to be kidding him! _"And I'm so sorry for interrupting your dinner with a man who cut off his brother's head and your conversation with Gay Jason."

"He wasn't gay."

"Obviously not..." He chuckled although he wasn't amused in the least.

"You have your perfect girlfriend now, Booth, you don't need to waste your precious time with me anymore. Isn't that what you have being doing? Ignoring me? I would like if you kept acting that way instead of ruining my chances of spending the night with a nice guy." She said and, even though it was most of the alcohol talking, Booth noticed the hurt in her voice as she said those words.

'_Drunken words are only sober thoughts spoken aloud.' _Booth remembered.

_Did Bones felt like he was ignoring her?_ They were together every day!

"He was _not _a nice guy." He had to say that first with a snort, then, he added more softly: "What are you saying, Bones? I'm not ignoring you."

"Yeah, right." She let out a sarcastic laugh, looking away so he couldn't see her eyes starting to tear up. She was reaching that emotional level of drunkenness.

Booth stared at her, looking completely wreck now, sitting on the wall, the teary eyes she was trying to hide, the messy hair and the smeared makeup. He'd never saw her like that before, so lost and so drunk. Yes, Brennan enjoyed a glass of wine or a bottle of beer once in a while, but she never went that far. Not even that night they drank tequila together.

So why did she do this? Was she right?_ Was he ignoring her lately?_

He was there with her every day, but now that he thought about it, he realized most of the time they were together, they only talked about work. Now that he was dating Hannah, he felt like he was being unfaithful if he spent more time than he needed with Brennan. Or at least that was what he told himself. If he was honest, he would admit he was avoiding his partner because he was afraid.

Afraid of let himself fall in love with her again.

_Damn. Who was he kidding?_

He never stopped loving her. His heart got warmer every time he saw a smile on her face, or when she messed up with some idiom or expression. Or when he was just looking at her, staring so concentrate at the bones she was studying. And he surely wanted to provide a very painful death to that bastard who was trying to feel her up in the nightclub.

But he needed to move on. He _deserved_ to move on.

Did he have the right to hurt her like that because of his own selfish reasons?

_No._

Angela was now married and pregnant, but even so… he knew he used to be the person Brennan would go first if she had a problem or some exciting news to share. He was her best friend, and now she felt lonely.

He wanted to shoot himself for being such an idiot and not noticing what was happening.

Brennan had abandonment issues and, the one person she thought would never leave her, was doing exactly what she knew once would happen, even though she didn't want to believe it.

_He was an idiot._

"Listen, Bones." He sat next to her on the wall. "I'm sorry if I gave you impression I'm ignoring you. It was never my intention to make you feel that way." He took her hand in his and tried to make her look at him, but she was being stubborn. Hey, at least she still didn't kick him out of here yet. "You're my best friend, you know I'll always be there for you."

"You have Hannah now, Booth. She's a good woman and she makes you happy. I'm happy for you." She said sincerely. Well, if sober Brennan was terrible at lying, inebriated Brennan was even worse. "I understand that you can't waste your free time with your awkward and oblivious partner anymore." She couldn't help adding bitterly. It still hurt her that he told things that belonged to them and only them to his girlfriend.

"Bones, what are you saying? We still spend time together out of work." He said like it was obvious. But now that he thought about it… _did they?_

"Do you realize this is the first time we spend time alone outside of work since Hannah arrived?" She smiled sadly. "I'll just go home, Booth. You should go home too."

"Like hell you're going home alone like that." He stood up quickly.

"I'm fine, Booth." She stood up and felt the whole world spinning, and had to hold on Booth to not fall.

"I see. Just let me take you back home, okay, Bones?" He wrapped his arm around her to give her stability and started walking to get a cab. He was glad she didn't objected and once they were inside the car, he realized it was probably because she'd gone to the next level of her drunkenness: sleepiness.

Smiling, he rested his arms around her shoulders and felt a nice feeling growing inside his chest when she rested her head on his and closed her eyes. His heart ached. He missed her. He missed his friend a lot.

He'd have to find a way to make things work.

"You smell good, Booth." She mumbled, probably not even knowing what she was saying.

"Thanks, Bones. It's my new soap." He smiled.

"That's a good soap."

And those were the last words she said before they arrived at her place. When the cab parked in front of her building, Booth gave him a twenty and stepped out of the car, knowing there was no way Brennan would wake up to walk on her own till her door.

Sighing, the got his keychain and found the now unused key he had to her apartment and took her in his arms. She groaned something he didn't understand, probably complaining about being bothered on her sleep, but soon she snuggled in his arms, wrapping her arms around his neck and resting her head on his chest.

Once they were inside her perfectly organized and cleaned apartment, he put her in her bed, took off her shoes and covered her with the blanket he knew she kept on the second door of her wardrobe. Taking a last look at her peaceful sleeping face, he kissed her forehead and left.

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**Please review and make my day! (and I mean that literally!) =D**

Megwill**, thanks for that sentence. You know which one. ;)**


	3. Water

**Huge thanks for everyone who added this story to their alerts! And even bigger thanks for those who reviewed. You are the ones who keeps me writing. :)**

**Nothing gives me more inspiration than reading your lovely feedback, so, thank you!

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"How is she?" Hannah asked as soon as Booth stepped into the apartment. Part of him was hoping his girlfriend would be already asleep once he got home, but of course, God wouldn't be that kind with him. He was pretty sure the blonde noticed his overly protective attitude towards his partner and would want explanations for that.

Explanations he didn't want give right now. Because he wasn't sure about his feelings at the moment himself.

"She collapsed as soon as she got home." He said, deciding to omit that little part where she fell asleep in the car and he had to carry her home and put her in bed. He was quite certain Hannah wouldn't like that part very much. Booth sighed slowly and sat on the couch. _What a night._ "I'm sorry about Bones' behavior, she usually doesn't act like that."

"She's a big girl, Seeley, you don't have to apologize for what she does." Hannah sat next to him. "Besides, she didn't do anything wrong. Everyone has the right to loose it up a little bit sometimes… God knows I've already done it quite a lot…" She smiled mischievously.

"I know… it's just…" He was so confused. He didn't like seeing Bones acting that way. She was so out of character. First the crazy dance with that nasty man, then the tears and vulnerability outside the nightclub. "… She wasn't acting like Bones, you know? I wonder if I'm being a bad partner and friend to her."

"How can you say that? You two are always congratulated from everyone in the FBI for the incredible work you do." Hannah reminded him.

"Yeah… but… you know…" _How could he explain this?_ His relationship with Brennan wasn't like anything else he'd ever seen. Sweets once told them they had a "surrogate relationship", but he also couldn't say that to his girlfriend. "I think she's feeling lonely… Bones never had many friends and now Angela is married. And before you… I never really had a serious girlfriend, so we were always together. Her entire life, people who she loved abandoned her. I'm afraid she feels like I'm doing that too now."

"Well, I guess she knew things would have to change someday. I mean, it's not like you would be single forever." She smiled and started untying his tie, eager to change the subject and switch to a much funner situation.

"Maybe she didn't think it would happen that soon…" Booth said thoughtfully, ignoring the fact his girlfriend had already finished her work with the tie and moved to his shirt. "I should have warned her, but when I came back I was so excited about us that I told her about you right away."

"She'll be fine, Seeley. She's a strong, independent woman." _Would he really keep talking about his partner the entire night? _

"Bones might like to give people the impression she's strong and independent, but she's like a child in the inside. She's vulnerable and when something makes her sad or when she is hurt, instead of opening up about it, she builds up her walls back." Booth told Hannah. And he had done a pretty good job breaking those walls on the past years. It was a shame they were all back now.

Hannah had had enough. So, if he wanted to talk about Temperance Brennan, they would talk about Temperance Brennan.

"You never told me you guys had a history." She said like it was nothing while finishing unbuttoning his shirt.

Booth froze.

"History? What do you mean with that?" He asked carefully. He worked interrogating people, using the best ways to get the informations he wanted. He knew that was the kind of question you ask when you want someone to fall on a trap and tell you something you didn't know yet.

But he knew better than that.

"Temperance told me you kissed." Hannah raised her eyes to look at him.

"Sh- she did what?" Booth gasped. Damn, he should have known Bones' big mouth would let something like that slip. And there he was, thinking she had got some acquaintance in what she should or should not tell people.

"Or I should say all the times you kissed…" She pursed her lips and started counting on her fingers. "Outside a bar after a lot of tequila, under the mistletoe… and she didn't say much about the last one, only that once again a kiss made you two be apart from each other for a long time, which I have to admit, left me _very _curious. I can't help it, I'm a journalist, after all."

"_Bones…_" He groaned. _"She really doesn't know how to keep things to herself, does she_?" He murmured to himself. That woman definitely was born without a filter between her genius brain and her beautiful mouth.

"What left me wondering, Seeley, was why I had to get that information from Temperance, when once I asked you if there was something between you two and you quickly told me there wasn't."

"Because there wasn't." He said right away. "There isn't." He added, just to make it clearer.

"I think being romantic in the past qualifies as 'something'."

"I don't know what Bones told you, but I don't think a drunken kiss or a mistletoe one are what you can call 'something'." Booth said a bit annoyed. Of course they were something. Their first kiss just proved him she was the woman he wanted by his size forever, it proved him how perfectly they fit together. And the mistletoe one had been the first time he kissed her having real feelings for her, after he knew the extraordinary person she was.

"You forgot the last kiss."

_Damn. _

"I wouldn't qualify that as a kiss… it was merely two pairs of lips touching." He felt sadness fulfilling his body as he remembered that kiss. The kiss she broke so quickly before pushing him away. It still hurt. "It didn't last more than 3 seconds."

"Hmm… that's interesting, because Temperance told me it was the reason that kept you apart." Hannah said with a know-it-all face.

Booth was annoyed. _Who did she think he was? One of the people she interviewed?_

"Do you really want to talk about it now?" He straightened up on the couch, the irritation clear on his voice.

"Actually, I do." She said firmly, but not raising her voice. "It must have been something big to keep two partners apart and send you to Afghanistan and her to Indonesia."

"_You want to know what happened?_" He looked right at his girlfriend. "I made a mistake. I thought she was ready for something, but I was wrong. We needed a break, a break from the murders, and to tell you the truth, I needed a break from almost everything in here." He didn't need a break from his son, though, that he knew for certain. The only thing that was harder than to be away from Bones was be away from Parker. "My life was a mess, and I would appreciate if we didn't talk about it now."

"You told her you loved her." Hannah said that as an statement, not as a question.

He looked at her blankly, not knowing what to say.

"You still love her?" Her voice failed her for the first time that night. Hannah wasn't a woman to change her life because of a man. She had quit a great opportunity to work in many interesting places to be with him in Washington. She needed to know in what she was getting into before things got even more serious between them.

Booth thought for a while before answering that question.

"Yes, I do." He said simply.

Hannah looked at him surprised. She was certain he would deny it.

"She's my friend and she's my partner. We've been through so many things together that I simply cannot tell you all of them in one night." Nor did he think he had the right to tell her all those things. They were his and Bones'. "So, yes, I love her, I love her very much." He took Hannah's hands in his. "But I love you too. And I'm with_ you_ now. Bones and I were never a couple, and I doubt pretty much we could ever be." He didn't appreciate the fact that that thought still hurt him. "You don't have to worry about it."

"Thanks." She smiled sincerely. "For being honest."

"You're welcome." He smiled back.

"So… what you're going to do now?" She asked.

"I don't know… I think I should have lunch with her tomorrow and see if everything is alright. Bones almost never opens up about what she's feeling, but I can be very persuasive and hopefully she'll crack and tell me what's wrong." He shrugged. "You're okay with that?"

"As long as you're honest with me." She nodded. "I know she's important to you, Seeley, that she's part of your family. And who am I to get in the middle of such a great partnership?"

"Thank you." He smiled. And that was another reason why he loved her.

Hannah was_ very_ understanding.

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.

Temperance Brennan didn't dare to open her eyes. Or maybe it was her eyes that would refuse to do what her brain ordered. A brain, by the way, which seemed to weight three hundred pounds, what Brennan knew was completely impossible. But that was the way she felt, like her brain had swelled inside her skull and now was squeezed and aching like hell.

_Why was that happening?_

She tried to remember what had happened before she felt asleep but the oversized swelled brain wasn't helping either in that matter. Moving her hands, she realized she was in a bed. But she couldn't remember _how _she got there.

_Drugs._

Damn. She must have been drugged. The only time she had memory lapses was when she was drugged – because she was certainly not under a spell, everybody knows such things does not exist – in New Orleans.

But why had she been drugged? What was the last thing she remembered?

_Hannah._

Oh, yes. Hannah. Hannah had asked her to go out and they were in a nightclub. And she had a marguerita… and some shots of tequila.

_Booze._

That was another explanation for her little amnesia. Which, she had to admit, was a way better reason than being drugged.

_So… what else, Temperance?_

_You had drinks… and then you went dancing…_ oh yes. She remembered.

And…

_Michael Jackson. _

There was something about Michael Jackson. Booth told Hannah their Michael Jackson in the cheese story and she got mad. Mad because he shared something theirs to another person. And she drink some more. And more.

And then…

_Booth._

He was also there. Oh, crap. She was dancing with a guy – very good looking, by the way – when he showed up and beat the man up.

She tried to think harder to remember, but her brain wasn't really helping. The last thing she remembered was he telling Hannah to take his car back to the apartment.

The rest of the night was a complete blank.

Making an enormous effort, she managed to open her eyes a little bit. Okay, she was fully clothed, which was a very good thing. She was still wearing last night's outfit, but it wasn't really a surprise given her condition as she remembered.

Taking all her strength, she made herself sit on the bed – her head still hating her and making her feel like there was one thousand needles entering her brain – and stood up.

She noticed her shoes perfectly placed next to her bed and she was pretty sure she would have only thrown them somewhere in the room last night if she didn't even change her pants and blouse for a nightgown.

Oh, crap. Crap. Three times crap.

_Booth was there? In her apartment?_

As if her night couldn't had gotten worse.

The clock on her nightstand showed it was almost eight already, and she should get to the lab soon, so, went to the bathroom. A cold shower would be very pleasing at the moment. Her smelly hair – she felt like a walking cigarette and she didn't even smoke – was making her even more nauseous.

Once she was fully dressed – she grabbed the first outfit she found on her wardrobe, she took her sunglasses with the biggest shades and went to the lab, hoping for a peaceful day working with old remains from World War II.

_As if she would be that lucky…_

As soon as she stepped out of the car in the parking lot, she felt her cell phone vibrating.

.

_Hey, Bones. Hope you're feeling okay. I'm picking you up for lunch at 1 pm. I won't take 'no' for an answer. Uh-uh. No excuses. Be ready. Booth._

_._

She caught herself smiling as she finished reading the message. Not because she was willing to meet him for lunch – she wasn't, she wasn't sure if she wanted to know everything about the previous night – but because it felt like the old times, when Booth annoyed the hell out of her to eat properly and make sure she was okay.

And that, _that_ made her happy.

.

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**I hope you still want to know the rest of this story. :)**

**Gotta tell you, writing Booth and Hannah… icky… not that easy.**


	4. Orange Juice

**Thank you so much again for the incredible reviews! Without them this chapter probably wouldn't exist. I'm so busy this week I barely have time to sleep. I hope you'll enjoy it. :)

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"Sweetie... you look terrible." Angela commented as she watched her friend walking towards her office. Brennan was wearing a pair of jeans and a shirt that didn't match her coat. Her face was clean of makeup and her hair had dried naturally besides the bangs, which she just dried because she knew it was _not _an option not to dry it, unless she wanted to look like a poodle. The artist hadn't seen her friend like that in… well… _never_. "What happened?"

"I'm fine, Angela." Brennan said, not willing to talk about the previous night, but knowing it would be hard to get away from Angela. "I'm just presenting a sum of unpleasant physiological effects following the heavy consumption of alcoholic beverages I had last night. I'm certain I'll be back in my perfect health in a couple of hours or so."

"Hmm… so the night was that good?" Angela asked with a smirk on her face.

"I'd rather say that _bad_." Brennan threw her purse at the couch and sat behind her computer. "I'm definitely not enjoying the memory loss."

"Oh, you have alcoholic amnesia?" Angela was getting even more excited. "Don't you remember _anything_?"

"I do… but there are some blank spaces in my mind." Brennan said confused. "All I remember is drinking with Hannah, getting mad and then…" She stopped, knowing the next information would turn Angela's gossip radar on.

"And then what?" If that was possible, Angela Montenegro got even more curious since she got pregnant.

"Booth beat up a guy I was dancing with…" She didn't dare to look at her friend's face.

Angela just stared at her, waiting eagerly for the ending of that sentence.

"… and then told Hannah to take his car back to his apartment." She finished. "That's all I remember."

"_Please_, tell me you woke up naked with Mr. Studly holding you in his amazing arms!"

"Angela!" Brennan looked up at her friend. "_No!_ Booth did not spend the night with me! I was fully clothed when I woke up this morning. " _And completely alone, _she told herself sadly._ All Booth's fault, of course. She could have had a gorgeous blonde guy with her… Or Boo- no_. She shook her head. This was wrong. And not happening. "Although…"

Angela's eyes doubled the size at that word. "Although?"

"Well, I was covered by my blankets and my shoes were standing next to my bed. I doubt I would be careful like that given my headache this morning and the memory loss." Brennan explained.

"Oh…" A devilish smile appeared in the artist's face. "So he_ was _there."

"I'm certain Booth just wanted to make sure I was heading home safely." She swallowed. "You know how he is…"

"Yes… but he didn't mind sending his girlfriend home alone." The smile didn't leave Angela's face. That was already a good step.

"She wasn't inebriated." Brennan pointed out.

"So that's it?" Angela asked frustrated. She was hoping for some crazy _"I-need-you"_ sex.

"What else could there possible be?" Brennan creased her forehead.

"_This is like reading a never ending book…_" Angela sighed sadly.

"What did you say?"

"Nothing, sweetie, nothing." She smiled. "I'll bring you a pill that does _magic_ with hangovers."

"You know that it's not actually magic, right?" Brennan raised one eyebrow.

Angela chuckled, and shaking her head, she left the office.

.

.

Brennan had called him half an hour before saying that she would be a little late so it would be better if she met him at the diner, promising that she_ would_ go. He'd been there for ten minutes already when he saw her open the door and head to their usual booth. She looked a bit tired and he noticed she didn't put makeup that morning, nor did she dry her hair, but he thought she looked beautiful nevertheless. Her unmatched outfit made her look young, quirky and adorable.

"I'm glad to see you can stand on your feet, Bones." He couldn't help teasing her. "Last night you looked like Ariel when she realized she had legs."

"Ariel?" She asked as she sat in front of him.

"_The Little Mermaid_, Bones." He chuckled. "You're unbelievable."

"Oh, I believe you mean the Disney movie?" Brennan tilted her head a little bit when she asked that, making a streak of hair cover her right eye and Booth had to hold himself and not reach his hand and place it behind her ear. "The one which modified the original tale, where the Little Mermaid suffers excruciating pain once she is given the legs and the Prince marries another woman, breaking her heart and making her decide to throw herself in the ocean and turn into foam." Brennan reminded him. She remembered reading the original book written by Hans Christian Andersen when she was little. When the Disney movie came out, she was already a teenager and never really cared about watching it. Besides, she hated when movies changed the original plot of the book.

"Yeah, because that original ending would be awesome to please little children." He said ironically, but amused in the inside. He missed doing stuff like that with Bones, he making a pop culture reference and she giving him the original or anthropological explanation.

"While it is much closer to reality, since relationships are mostly doomed, it certainly wouldn't fit Disney's '_happily ever after_' motto." The talk about the prince getting another woman reminded her of something. "Isn't Hannah coming?"

Brennan was marveled by the fact that his girlfriend wasn't there to join them to have lunch. Since Hannah arrived, weeks before, they'd never had lunch alone; they were either accompanied by Hannah or Sweets.

"Nope, this is just you and me. Like the good old times." He opened his charm smile and leaned back on his seat, watching her in a way he didn't allowed himself to do in a long time.

"_Really_?" She asked to make sure, smiling like a little girl before she could realize what she was doing.

"Yep." He nodded, his heart getting warmer just seeing how something so simple like having lunch together made his partner happy. And that made him feel even guiltier about neglecting her lately. "So, you're alright?"

"Of course I'm alright, Booth, why wouldn't I be?"

"Well, I thought you'd wake up with a horrible hangover today." He said. "I never saw you the way you were last night. You got_ really _wasted."

"You didn't have to take me home." She pursed her lips, ashamed that he had to take her home, having no idea how they actually _got_ to her apartment. She surely wouldn't dare to ask. Some things were better if they remained unknown. "I don't think Hannah was pleased with that. I have to apologize for my horrific attitude. I didn't mean to spoil your night."

"She understood, Bones, you don't have to apologize for anything. You did nothing wrong, you just… drank a little too much."

"And you shouldn't have hit Noel's face." She frowned as she remembered the pretty guy lying on the floor after Booth knocked him down. She thought it was really hot when Booth did that and showed his alpha male tendencies, but he shouldn't act like that for her. She wasn't his mate. _Hannah _was.

"Neil, his name was _Neil_." Booth corrected her, feeling irrationally happy that she didn't remember the jerk's name. "And I don't regret a thing. _He was feeling you up_!"

"And I believe I didn't object." She folded her arms on her chest. "You really have to stop sticking your chin in every relationship I start to have."

"Nose, stick your nose." He corrected her again. "And _relationship_?" He rolled his eyes annoyed. "Bones, the most you could get with that piece of ass was a one night stand!"

"I don't understand what you have to do with my sex life, Booth." She said dryly. "As far as I remember, I've never interfered in the things you do with Hannah. And I even had to hear you two brag about your _amazing_ sex under a fig tree, which, if I recall correctly, you'd call '_crappy sex_' a couple of years ago." She couldn't help adding with a mix of anger and hurt.

"Hannah likes… exotic stuff." He said embarrassed. _Were they really talking about his sex life?_

"Well, I thought _you _didn't." Brennan commented coldly. "It's quite sad, actually, I liked your whole '_making love_' speech. I believed in it for a moment." Booth wanted to ask why she didn't believe in it anymore, but she had grabbed the menu, not wanting to stare at her partner.

"There were sparkles when you two met?" She couldn't hold her tongue. She_ needed _to know.

Booth was shocked by her question. No, there weren't. Not the ones he meant when he talked to Brennan about making love. That click inside his head, the sparkles, the heart flipping inside his chest… it had only happened once… when he entered a class where a beautiful teacher was teaching defleshing techniques to her smart students.

"There were gunshots." He shrugged, willing to change the subject. "I'm starving, what will you want, Bones, the usual salad?"

"Yes." She said after closing the menu. "And orange juice-".

"No sugar." He completed her sentence and she nodded, the edges of her lips curving up a little bit.

Booth called the waitress and ordered a salad for her and a steak with salad for him.

"Won't you ask for your pie?" Brennan asked surprised. Booth always had pie whenever they were at the diner. _Always._

"No." He said simply.

"But you _always_ have pie. It's your favorite food. You love it." She said confused. It made no sense. Booth not having pie was almost like working at the lab without… bones. It was just… _wrong_.

"I know, but Hannah says I have to watch out or I'll be heading for obesity." He explained.

"_That's nonsense!" _She cried_. _"While I agree your diet used to be mostly unhealthy, you're far from getting obese. You almost don't have fat in your body, it's mostly muscles!" Brennan added annoyed.

"Thanks, Bones." He smiled cockily.

"I'm just stating the truth."

The waitress didn't take long to bring their meals, and when she was turning away to leave their booth, Brennan called her again.

"We'd want an apple pie, too, please." She said and the woman nodded. Once she was out of view, Brennan looked at her surprised partner again. "You shouldn't change who you are to please your girlfriend, Booth. If she truly loves you, she'll love you anyway, fat, thin, pie or no pie. I don't see the greatness on having fruit cooked on your pie, but you seem to enjoy it immensely. Stop giving yourself that pleasure because of Hannah is just wrong."

Booth stared at his partner amazed. _If only she realized _she_ didn't have to change to make things work out... his world would be such a better place._

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**Please, don't forget to click this little bottom below and tell me what you think!**

**Ps: I know Brennan's hair is straight, but my hair is straight and if I don't dry my bangs, don't ask me how, but they look like a complete mess and just... well... it's not a possibility NOT drying it. It's like the thing has its own life and personality.  
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	5. Milkshake

**I'm sorry for taking so long to update. Watching Bones' latest episode under medication was **_**not**_** a good thing. I was super depressed after it was over it's not even funny. I seriously don't know**_** how**_** I'll stand watching Booth being lovey-dovey with Hannah for at least 6 more episodes (yes, she's in episode 9). Brennan is breaking my heart and it's getting really hard to watch. =/ I mean, **_**really**_**.**

**Not to mention Booth is annoying me beyond words. I'm not even able to appreciate seeing naked Booth because I'm so disgusted to see him in bed with Hannah. **

**Yeah. That's very sad.**

**Ok, now I'll stop rambling and let you read the chapter.

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_One week later…_

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"Your father asked me to tell you he was very sorry for not being able to pick you up at the Jeffersonian tonight." Brennan told the blonde little boy sitting in front of her at the diner. It was Friday night and Parker had just left the science project Max Keenan was making with children. Booth was supposed to pick him up today, it was his weekend with the boy, but he got stuck at his office and asked Brennan if she could get his son for him. Of course she did, and thinking the boy could get bored at her office, she decided to bring him to the Royal Diner so they could grab something to eat.

"I don't mind." Parker said, sucking his strawberry milkshake. "I like spending time with you, Bones."

Brennan smiled. She also liked to spend time with Parker. He was a very smart and curious little boy, but since Hannah arrived and moved in with Booth, she rarely was able to see the kid.

She was lost in her thoughts when Parker's phone rang.

"Hi, Dad." He answered the phone right away. He loved that he now had his own phone. He felt important. And _so_ grown up. "Yeah, I'm fine, I'm with Bones." Booth was probably saying something, because the boy was listening carefully. His expression changed from a grin to a frown. "Already? But, Dad… okay… okay. Bye."

He looked at Brennan sadly once he hanged up the phone. "It was Dad. He said he's going to pick me up in half an hour. Hannah is making dinner for us." He grimaced.

"Oh, you think he'll be mad at me for bringing you to the diner and feeding you?" Brennan asked concerned. She didn't want to spoil Hannah's night by sending home the little boy with his stomach full.

"No, it's better this way." Parker took a big bite at his sandwich. "I won't have to sit there with Hannah and I can play videogame instead."

"Don't you think she'll feel offended if you refuse to have dinner with them?" Brennan creased her forehead unsure. Cooking was usually a way to show affection for the person you cook for, Hannah was probably trying to please Parker and Booth.

Parker just did an "_I-don't-care_" shrug.

Brennan was surprised with the little boy's aversion to his father's girlfriend. That child was usually super sweet with _everyone _around him. And Hannah was a very pleasant person, despite the fact she was taking Booth away from her…

_Temperance, what are you thinking?_

"You don't like Hannah?" She asked, curiosity winning over her.

"Heck, no." He shook his head, like even suggesting such a thing was an offence to him.

"_Why?_" Brennan couldn't help asking. "She's a very nice woman."

"No, she's not." Parker rolled his eyes. "She's annoying and Dad acts stupid around her."

"Acts stupid?"

"Yeah, it's like…" Parker knitted his brows while trying to find the best way to explain this to Brennan. "…He's different since she arrived. And I hate that they are always kissing in front of me. Seriously, that's _gross_."

"But Booth is being the good father he's always been as far as I know, he told me you went to the club last week and to the zoo in the other. You love going to the pool and you love the zoo." Brennan reminded Booth telling her about his weekend with Hannah and Parker. Before all this confusion, she was usually the one invited to go out with them.

"Yes, but _she_ was also there with us." Parker said bitterly.

"You didn't seem bothered when I went to those places with you." Brennan said. Not rarely, it would be the boy himself who would insist for her to come with them to the park, or to the zoo.

"Because you're Bones and you're super nice?" Parker raised one eyebrow, like it was obvious why he liked when Bones accompanied them and didn't when it was Hannah. "And I hate that now that Hannah is here you never go out with us anymore. Remember when we went to the pool in your building the other day and I jumped into the pool and made water drops fall on you?" Brennan nodded and smiled. It had been a beautiful day of summer the year before and she and the Booth boys had had a lot of fun in the pool. Since she told them they were invited to go to her pool whenever they wanted, Booth and Parker started showing up at her door time to time. "Then, you jumped in the pool too and Dad brought those super cool water guns, and he let you have the biggest one and you were super happy, even though Dad kept saying size didn't matter, but you insisted it did. And then we started shooting water at each other and we totally kicked Dad's ass because he wouldn't stop staring at you and was really an easy target."

Brennan blushed. _Was that the reason why Booth's performance was so bad in their Water War?_

"That was a really fun day." Brennan smiled, trying to forget the image of bare-chested Booth that formed in her head.

"It totally was." The little boy mirrored her grin. "When we went to the club last week and I jumped in the water and _accidentally_ let some water drops fall on Hannah, she got really annoyed because she was lying on the sun and the cold water startled her. Tell me, Bones, what's the fun in going to the club and stay _lying _on the sun? It's boring."

"Not to mention it's very dangerous nowadays and increases substantially the chances of people developing skin cancer." Brennan nodded agreeing.

"And when we went to the zoo, she didn't know _anything_ about the animals. Not their scientific names, nor nothing about their diets or how they have babies."

"You told Booth I explained to you how reproduction occurs?" Brennan's eyes widened.

"Of course not, he tells me it's another thing we shouldn't talk about until I grow hair in my armpits." Parker took another gulp of his milkshake. "Thanks for that again, I did super good in my science test."

"You're welcome." Brennan smiled. She felt amazing that she was able to explain something to the little boy and him actually understanding her.

"Booth is very sensitive with everything about that subject." _Except_… when he was with Hannah. He didn't mind about sharing information about their sex life_. Like _she _wanted to know_ anything_ about it._

"Do you want pie?" She asked when she noticed he had finished with his sandwich.

"Of course I want pie." Parker smirked. "I love pie."

"Just like your father." She chuckled. Parker was like Booth in so many ways. Maybe that was why she got along so well with him. And why she loved him so much.

The waitress stopped at their booth and told the flavors of the pies that day: strawberry, apple and fig.

"Ewww, no! Fig no! I _hate_ figs!" Parker made a disgusted face.

"So do I." Brennan winced agreeing.

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Booth arrived at the diner when Parker was finishing his strawberry pie.

"Hey, Bones, thanks so much for picking him up for me." He said to his partner before turning his attention to his son. "Ready to go, bub?" He patted his shoulders.

"Yeah…" Parker sighed, looking less than happy.

"Why that face?" Booth asked concerned.

"I wish we didn't have to go home. I wish we could go play bowling or skating with Bones, like we used to do." He frowned.

"But, Parks, Hannah is making us dinner and she's really excited about it. She's making lasagna because she knows it's your favorite." Booth told him softly.

"I've already eaten." Parker muttered and stood up, walking around the table to throw his arms around Brennan in a hug. "Thanks for the dinner, Bones. I really missed you."

And then he kissed her cheek. Brennan felt her heart tightening and wrapped her arms around the boy's torso. "I missed you too, Parker."

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Parker didn't open his mouth on their way back to Booth's apartment. Booth glimpsed at his son time to time just to see the boy looking out of the window, looking very thoughtful. Usually Parker would be very excited for their weekend together, but since last weekend, he'd been noticing the changes in his son's attitude.

"What's wrong, Parker? Is there something going on at school?" He asked worried. Parker was normally very talkative.

"No, school is fine." He answered simply.

"Then why do you look so sad? You know you can tell your old buddy here anything, right?" Booth smiled. He hated seeing his son like that. Even worse, he hated not knowing _why _his son was sad like that.

Parker looked at him in silence for a moment, and then decided to ask something that didn't leave his mind that afternoon.

"Why can't Bones be your girlfriend?" He asked. He didn't understand why Dr. Brennan and his father wasn't an item yet. They seemed more involved and in love than even his mom and Brent. And his mom and Brent were _married_.

Booth froze for a moment, not daring to look at his son. What would he say? That he tried but Bones didn't want to give them a chance? That he had to move on and now he was happy with Hannah?

"Parker, I'm dating Hannah, I can't date two women at the same time. You know it's not right." He tried.

"I know, but Bones is way better than Hannah, Dad." Parker said.

_Oh, man._ Booth now wished he didn't ask his son what was bothering him.

He felt the need to defend his girlfriend, even though deep down he knew he agreed with Parker. As much as he loved Hannah, she would never complement him the way Bones did, even if they weren't romantically envolved.

"Hannah is a great woman, bub. She makes me happy." Booth said, but it didn't come out with as much certain as he wanted it to.

"Bones said the same, but it's not true, Dad." The little boy said. "You're weird with her."

"Weird?"

"Yeah, when we are with Bones, we laugh. When we are with Hannah, you giggle." Parker wrinkled his nose.

"I don't giggle!" Booth cried. _Dude, children giggle, women giggled, but Special Agent Seeley Booth didn't giggled._ He _laughed._

"You_ do_, and you do that even when she says things that aren't even funny." His son accused him. "You're not as fun as you're when you're with Bones. And I hate that she's always clinging on you and treating me like a child."

"You're a child, kiddo." Booth teased him. Parker told him he giggled. _Giggled._

"She treats me like a _baby_." Parker rolled her eyes. "Bones doesn't. She talks to me like she talks with everyone else. I like that."

Great. _Just great_. His son loved his partner and the woman he'd been in love for seven years and disliked his girlfriend. _Awesome. Just what he needed. As if things weren't already complicated enough the way they were._

"Besides, Bones is super smart and she's the coolest person around. Come on, Dad, she likes to play with water guns and she knows how to kick someone's asses. And… she's prettier and funnier than Hannah."

_Holy crap, what did Bones have to get all the Booth guys down on her feet?_ Because she had him, and Jared (it still pissed him though), Pops and now it was clear that she had nine-year-old Parker too.

"You should try to be nice with Hannah, Parker." Booth didn't want to talk about Brennan. Not now. Not when his life was finally going to the right direction.

_Or at least he thought it was._

"I don't like her Dad. She keeps Bones away. And today I saw how sad Bones was."

_Did Parker notice that too?_

"Bones and I… it's more complicated than you think, bub."

"You always tell me I should always try to get what I want, never stop fighting and that the things that are the hardest to get, they're the ones we value the most." Parker reminded him.

Booth stopped at a red light and looked at his son surprised.

_Was he right? Did he give up too soon?_

_And what was happening with Brennan lately? The lost little girl face and the sad eyes?_

_What did that mean?_

"I think Bones loves you, Dad, and she's sad because now you're with Hannah. You should dump Hannah and get Bones, then, we all would be happy." Parker suggested hopefully. "Well, except for Hannah, I think." But who cared?

Booth turned his head back to the road and started driving when the light turned green again.

_He wished things could be that easy._

_._

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**I had to write this because I love Parker and even though he's such a great kid and Hannah seems to be way cooler than how I wrote her here (I hope not), I really, really hope he doesn't get along well with her. **


	6. Whisky

**I think I've never felt happier and more satisfied with the reviews I've received in a chapter than I was with the last one. It wasn't my most reviewed, but it was without a doubt the one with best quality of reviews. It was really a delight to read all you have to say, so, really ****thank you****!**

**Especially because that chapter was the hardest for me to write, I think I never took so long trying to write one. I was with super writer's block. hahaha**

**I'm sorry I couldn't reply to everyone, makes me feel awful since you were all so amazing, but like I said I'm still recovering and not spending as much time in the computer (it's uncomfortable) as I'm used to do.**

**I hope you enjoy this chapter, it's totally NOT EXPECTED for me, I came to write one thing and my fingers totally typed another, so… well. Like I said once, my characters have their own lives.**

**Makes me sound crazy, right? =/

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"Is there something wrong, Booth?" Brennan asked as they drove to the crime scene on Monday. "You seem oddly quiet."

"It's nothing-" He started to say, but changed his mind. It was Bones there with him, his best friend. He could talk to her about everything. "It's just… Parker." He didn't take his eyes off the road. "He doesn't like Hannah."

Brennan chewed her cheeks. That was not was she was expecting to talk about. Lately she realized her days were a lot better when Hannah wasn't mentioned in their conversations. Somehow, whenever the name was brought up, the tension around them seemed to surface and almost reach that point of the unbearable.

"He informed me that when we had dinner on Friday. Maybe Parker is just a little jealous of you, Booth, now that he has to share the weekends you used to spend together with Hannah." Brennan tried to help her friend. Although, deep inside she was a little bit happy that the boy wasn't that fond of the blonde.

"He never minded when you came with us to his games or to the zoo." Booth said.

"Yeah, because he likes me." She couldn't help smiling. Then, she realized it wasn't exactly what Booth wanted to hear, so, she added: "Which is completely understandable since I'm present in his life since he was very young. It's not unusual to form bonds with people that are a part of your life during your growth."

And she couldn't be gladder to be a part of Parker's life. Seeing the cute curly haired little boy growing into an amazing young man was fascinating.

"My boy really loves you, Bones." He smiled. There was no point in denying that. "And I don't think it's only because he grew up seeing you, but because you're great with him."

"He's a great child, Booth, it's not hard to deal with him."

"Well, seems like Hannah can't say the same." He sighed. "She really tries to please him, you know? But he doesn't care at all. It's not like he is disrespectful, because you know Parker would never be like that, he is just… indifferent."

Brennan didn't know what to say, so, she kept quiet.

"Maybe she just isn't good with children." Booth concluded with a sad shrug. He wanted so much to have more children. What if Hannah never wanted to have babies?

"Booth,_ I_ am terrible with children." Brennan reminded him. "Hannah seems to be the kind of woman everyone would love to have around and who the kids would adore."

_Everyone but Parker_, it seemed.

"Nah, you think you are bad with kids, Bones, but you know you're not. Parker loves you, and when you had to take care of Andy? That little boy would open a smile whenever he saw you. That little boy from the foster system wouldn't talk to anyone but you during that case. And just last week you were great with the children at the Science Dude's show."

That comment left Brennan thoughtful. Since she came back from Indonesia and Angela told her about her pregnancy, the thoughts of having her own baby became to haunt her again. Seeing the happiness in her friend's eyes every time she talked about the baby and how Hodgins threat his wife with tenderness and love made her ache to have that too. But now that dream seemed to be as far as ever. She couldn't see herself having anyone's baby but Booth's. And she highly doubted he'd be more open to that idea now that he was in a _very serious _relationship than he was a couple of years before.

"Bones?" He asked worried when he saw her frowning. "You okay?"

"I was just…" She inhaled deeply and turned to look at him before finishing her sentence. "I still want to have a baby, that's all."

Booth's heart skipped a beat when he heard that. _So not what he was expecting to hear._

He thought she'd put that crazy idea to rest.

"Once you told me I didn't have much time anymore, and now I have even less." She turned her head back to the window on her side.

"You're 33, Bones. You still have plenty of time. Don't you see how long people wait to have kids nowadays? Lots of them are having babies at their 40's." Booth managed to say. Two years before, she asked him to have his baby, and even though he donated his material, he didn't allow her to go through the fertilization because when he had a baby with her, he wanted to be a part of his child's life. And now… he had Hannah. Having a baby with Bones was completely not happening.

_Impossible._

His heart tightened.

_What if she had someone else's baby?_

Just the thought of that sent chills to his body.

"The more I wait, the more I'm risking having an unhealthy pregnancy." Brennan told him. "Doctors recommend to conceive before you're 35."

"Bones… you can't have a baby now." The words escaped his mouth before he could hold them back.

Brennan looked at him confused. If the child she conceived wasn't his, he wouldn't have any saying in its life. Nor would it be related to him in any way. For all she knew, he would have his own blonde little babies with his _very serious_ girlfriend Hannah.

It was very selfish of him to tell her to not have a child. He was building his own family, he was sharing an apartment with his girlfriend, he had a healthy and brilliant son. _Why couldn't she have her own little one?_

"Of course I can. I'm a very healthy woman and I'm completely capable of taking care of a baby on my own. I'm financially secure and I'm at a point in my life where I can make my own schedule, making sure I'll be there for my child whenever he or she needs." Brennan said, sounding harsher than she intended. "Don't you think I'm going to be a good mother, Booth?"

_God, he hated that._

He thought she would be great. Amazing._ The best mother in the world._

"It's not… it's not that, Bones." He sighed heavily. "It's just… you shouldn't do things that way. The child should, you know… have a father."

"Although a father figure is an important thing in a child's life, it's completely acceptable not having one. Many children are raised by single mothers and are doing fine. I think we already discussed this, Booth."

"I know… but." _Damn_, he would have to say it. "I don't want you to have a baby now."

"_You _don't?" She almost laughed at that. Then she realized he was being serious. "Oh, you think it will compromise our partnership? I'll probably reduce my working hours, but I'll try to be as helpful as I've always been to you with the cases. You don't have to worry about that."

"I'm not talking about work." He wanted to hit his head at the dashboard. "Just don't have a kid now, okay, Bones?"

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When Booth got home that night, he was surprised to find his girlfriend waiting for him sitting on the couch. It was almost midnight. He'd been thinking the whole day about his conversation with Brennan earlier in the car and didn't feel like coming home before catching up with all the late paperwork.

"I thought you'd be asleep." He said, kissing her lightly on the lips, not really wanting to do that.

"I've got some news today and I have to talk to you." Hannah said, her face turning serious.

_Great._ All he needed was a serious talk with his girlfriend in the end of that hell of a day.

"What happened?" He asked.

"I've received an invitation to be a part of the researching and writing team for this new documentary about the life in the lost places in Africa. It's going to be a really amazing opportunity for me, not to mention it will be immensely interesting to be a part of that work." She explained. "The whole research and shooting will take about two years…"

She didn't have to say more. He got it.

He should have known sooner. Hannah was an incredible woman. She was smart, and funny and they had a great time in Afghanistan, but she wasn't a woman who wanted to settle down and have a family. She was a citizen of the world. _A nomad_, as once she described herself.

"You're going." It wasn't a question. He knew she would go.

"I have to give them an answer tomorrow." She leaned back on the couch when he sat next to her.

"You are telling me this like we should talk about it, but we both know you've already made up your mind." Booth smiled sadly.

"No, I really-" She started, but he took her hand and she shut her mouth. They shouldn't fool themselves.

"What we had…" He smiled genuinely at her. "…it was really great." She didn't miss the past tense. "But I think we both knew it would come to an end someday. Having each other while in the middle of the war was a brief of fresh air, but we should have known it wouldn't work out here in real life. The sex is amazing and we get along very well, but we have different goals in life, Hannah."

"You want to settle down and have a family." Hannah nodded understanding.

"And you want to live around the world, being free like a bird." He said, no resentments in his voice. "It was an awesome surprise when you came here to be with me, but I think a part of me always knew it wouldn't last forever. But we had to try, I guess."

"But it was good, wasn't it?" She asked him with a grin. "We had a lot of fun."

"We surely did." He agreed with a smirk and touched her face. "I'm really thankful for the time we spend together."

"And it wasn't like I had a fair competition here." She pouted. She felt the need to talk about that with him.

"What do you mean?"

"We're being honest, Seeley, and I'm not accusing you of anything. I know you are as faithful as a person can be, but we both know who you really love and want to settle down with." Booth bit his lips. "Like you said, what we had was great, and I'll always kept it was a great memory, but it was clear for me since the first time I met Temperance who was the one that made your heart beat faster."

Booth didn't try to deny that. Why would he? It was the truth.

"When are you leaving?" He asked, not wanting to talk about Brennan and hoping to break the awkward silence that hanged around them.

"Wednesday." She said. So, she really had accepted. But it wasn't like he didn't know it.

"You know you can stay here for whenever the time you need."

"I know."

"I'm going to miss you." He admitted. _He really would. _Even though things didn't work out between them, he would never regret having Hannah in his life. She'd come like a candle to his life when he was living completely in the dark.

"I'm going to miss you too." She smiled and held his hand. She looked at the good man in front of her and decided she had to make him realize something that seemed like he still didn't. "Seeley, you know she loves you too, right? She might try to hide it, but I could see the jealous and the pain in her eyes every time she saw us together."

"You think?" Booth knitted his brows.

"I _know_." She stood up and looked at him with a sincere smile. "You're going to be happy together. You just have to give yourselves a chance."

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**I didn't intend to bring the baby subject in this story, but we've been told Brennan's wishes for a baby will be brought up again this season, so I felt like it would fit. And that issue was left so open in TCitC that I really want to have a real conversation about that.**

**About Hannah and Booth break up, I think it will be mutual. So, that's why I wrote it like that.**

**Also, SN said we would love Hannah in the end, and the only chance of me "liking" her is she bringing B&B together in some way.**

**Yes, Brennan is already cracking and super jealous, but… you know. ;)**

**Btw, today's episode was GREAT.**

**Felt like Old Bones episodes. Such a coincidence Hannah wasn't in it. =P**

**Too bad it will be almost a month for a new episode. =(**

**Oh, next chapter will probably be the last one.**

**And good Lord, will I ever stood talking (typing?).**


	7. Champagne

**I'm so sorry for not updating in a long time again… I've been hit with a lot of writer's block this past days and it took me so LONG to finally be able to finish this chapter. I wrote the first part a long time ago but I didn't see how I could end it. I'm running out of words to bringing this two together after writing so many stories in such a short amount of time. I hope you will like this one. :)

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Booth threw himself at the couch in Brennan's office after placing the takeout bag on table in front of it. It was late at night and they were the only ones left at the Jeffersonian. Brennan was sitting behind her table and passing her eyes through some papers. The room was quiet and Booth couldn't help feeling that sense of familiarity taking over him. _Who could ever think that office would make him feel so comfortable and cozy?_

"Man, I missed this!" He smiled widely at his partner, feeling the need to share that thought. She looked so concentrated and so beautiful that all he wanted to do was to do was throw all those papers in the nearest bin and kiss her till they run out of air.

"What? Staying up till late doing paperwork?" Brennan raised her eyes from the papers to look at him surprised. They had closed a case that afternoon and they had to give all the papers with the evidence and the interrogatory scripts to the FBI in the following morning, which meant they'd have to work extra hours that night. "You hate paperwork, Booth." She reminded him.

"Yeah, I know, but I mean… how long has it been since we did that? We alone, here at the lab… sharing Thai food?" He asked feeling a bit sad for missing so much in the past year. But everything that happened was necessary, he told himself. He needed to try to move on. And Brennan needed to realize there was no one else in the world who would be a better partner – in all the meanings of the word – to Booth than her. She needed to realize that her love for him was real and stronger than anything. "We used to do it very often."

"We did." She smiled nostalgic, but not really willing to start a conversation about what had happened in the past months. It's been just over a week since she and Booth had finally started talking _almost_ normally again. She didn't want to have things all awkward and uncomfortable again. Seeing him with someone else still hurt her, but not seeing him _at all_ hurt much more.

"So, what did you bring?" She stood up and started looking at the takeout bags. He'd called her earlier saying he'd stop by and bring dinner.

"_Khao pat_, beef for me, vegetarian for you." He said opening the dishes.

Brennan smiled. She loved how he knew exactly what she liked.

"It looks very appetizing." She commented and sat next to him, ready to attack the food. She was starving. She used to focus so much on her work that she'd usually forget basic things like eating, but the smell of the food made her realize how hungry she was. The only thing she'd eaten since lunch (a salad) was half of a doughnut.

They ate quietly until Booth couldn't stand it anymore. He hated the silence.

"Bones, you have to try this, it's so delicious!" He told her and shoved his fork inside his carton, taking a bit of his food, and tried to feed her.

"No, Booth! You know I stopped eating meat a long time ago. I won't eat your chicken." She said a bit surprised.

"Come on, Bones, you _have_ to try this!" He put his fork closer to her. "Only the sauce, I promise. Come on… _vruuuuuuuuuum_" He imitated the sound of an airplane and made her chuckle.

"What is that supposed to be?" She asked amused as the fork "flew" near her face.

"It's an airplane, Bones." He smiled. "Now, open up your mouth and try this."

She looked at him doubtfully, but her all barriers went down when he looked at her with that puppy dog face she just couldn't resist.

"Fine." She gave up. Booth could be very persistent when he wanted to. "But only the sauce."

"You won't regret it." He grinned and fed her. He loved little moments like that. It almost hurt how much he missed doing simple things like sharing food with Bones.

Brennan chewed her food slowly, tasting it and wondering if it was as good as Booth seemed to think it was. He just stared at her, amazed that things had finally returned to their natural course and hoping that moment would never end.

"You were right." She said at last. "It was delicious."

_Delicious. _When he thought about that all he could think about was how delicious it would be to have her mouth back at his again.

Deciding to go with his guts, he realized it was time to talk about something that had been haunting him for a long time and now that Hannah was gone, he had no reasons not to ask anymore.

"Bones… that day… when we were at the diner with Sweets…" He started, his voice lower than usual and Brennan noticed that what would come next wouldn't be a joke or something to tease her. "You said you thought about us when you were in the Maluku's." She didn't miss the fact that he said the name of the Islands correctly and it suddenly made her feel anxious. It meant he was _really _serious. "Was it true?"

He _needed _to know.

Brennan didn't say anything. She didn't _know_ what to say. She hadn't lied when she told him that she thought about them together, but that was wrong in so many levels that she regret it the moment it came out of her mouth. First because he was in a serious relationship with another woman, second because she knew that even though they seemed good together, they were anomalous people, they couldn't be more different. It was a fact that relationships like that never ended up in a good way. And in the seven months she spent away from him she realized she couldn't live without him in her life. He was the best part of her day.

It'd been very difficult at the beginning when they came back and Hannah came along, but they were working things through and they were even having take out alone late at night. She was sure everything would come back to normal soon. And they could continue being the best friends and amazing partners they'd always had been.

_So what she felt the urge to kiss him now even more than before?_

Their eyes locked and knew she had to say the truth.

She couldn't lie. Not to him. Not to Booth.

Breaking the gaze, she looked down at her folded hands.

"Yes." She almost whispered. "I'd think about us together quite often while I was away." She didn't dare to look at him. "It was very hard, staying there at the beginning. I didn't know how attached to you I'd became. The pain was almost physical at first, but I knew I couldn't call you. I didn't have that right, I hurt you and you were trying to move on."

"Bones…" He reached out to take her hand but she quivered.

She had started now, and she didn't know if she would be able to finish if he touched her.

"I started working with those people, the smartest scientists that exists and who'd came from places all over the world. We worked together for months, but no one had really connected to anyone besides work. I saw Ms. Wick's pain for leaving Sweets and she told me countless times that she might have done the wrong decision choosing work over him." Brennan started tearing up, remembering those difficult night where she'd listen Daisy going on and on about her Lancelot and not helping thinking about her and Booth. "I realized what I had and what I was giving up. My friends, my family…_ you_." She glanced at him quickly. "Seeing those people made me see how much I changed since I met you. And I changed for the better. That was when I decided to cut my hair. Before we went away, you told me things had to change. I felt like if I changed something on the outside, it would be a good way to prove myself that changing wasn't that hard. That I _could _do it."

"Your new haircut looks very cute." He played with the ends of her locks and she looked at him for the first time since she started talking.

"Thank you." She looked away again. "It was also easier to keep at the Island."

"Bones…" He lifted her chin gently with his thumb. He needed her to look at him. "I've never wanted you to change." He looked into her eyes, he needed her to understand that he was saying the truth. "I've always thought you were perfect the way you are. I love you_ exactly_ the way you are, smart, beautiful, focused, blunt, funny, quirky and so completely adorable. You don't have to change. And the way you changed in the past years… I'd call that evolving." He smirked and brushed her cheek with his thumb.

"Booth…" She gulped, her eyes opened so wide she was afraid they'd pop out. Did he realize what he was saying? That he just said he loved her without adding '_in a professional, atta girl kind of way_'? "You… you can't love me." She quivered again. "You love-"

She couldn't finish her sentence because the next thing she knew, Booth's mouth was on hers and she lost control of her brain completely, because the moment his lips made contact to hers, she kissed him back immediately. He was so gentle and he smelled so good. Being in his arms was something she dreamed about every night she was away and when she'd come back. Booth made her feel safe and loved. And she couldn't help noticing he was a very skilled kisser.

He kissed her more deeply and she clung on him, wrapping her arms around his neck, just in time for her brain to recover his functions and reminds her of what they were doing.

"This- _this is wrong_!" She pulled away from him, looking completely lost. "Hannah… you'd… you'd move on!"

Booth looked desperate, now it was now or never. He wouldn't bear being rejected again.

"I didn't move on, I couldn't move on…. I don't want to move on." He grabbed her hands and she gasped, feeling her head spinning. "I tried, Bones, I swear I tried, but I failed. And… I'm tired. I don't want to keep trying when I know I'll never find someone else because I already know who I want to be with forever and who is the one I love. Insanity, right? Doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different outcome?"

"But what about Hannah?" She asked him, now a bit less anxious.

"We broke up a couple of days ago." He told her finally. "I guess Hannah and I were way too much _nomulous_."

"That word doesn't exist, Booth."She squinted. "You mean ordinary? Normal?"

He smiled.

"Yeah… what's the fun in being ordinary, uh?" He brushed her face tenderly with his knuckles. "I don't want to be in a normal relationship, Bones, I want an extraordinary one. You were right, we are anomalous, but that's what makes us so good together, because being so different, we complement each other. We challenge each other. We make each other better."

She stared at him and he knew she was processing everything he had said.

Brennan recalled the sleepless nights and how she hated waking up alone after dreaming about him and their family. She remembered how much it hurt to see him with someone else. For once, she had to gamble on something.

Closing her eyes, she leaned down to kiss him sweetly in the mouth.

"You're right." She said, their faces so close to each other that their noses were almost touching.

"I'm right?" He smiled, his eyes sparkling so much that she knew it was worth agreeing with him just to see him looking at her like that.

"Yes." She didn't take her eyes off him. "I find I don't enjoy seeing you with any other woman and that given how great our kisses are, we will most likely be _very good_ in bed. That, plus the fact we used to have a surrogate relationship and, in Angela's words had been a couple only without having sex, I see no reasons for this not working out. Besides…"

"Besides?" Booth asked, his heart pounding in his chest.

"This time away made me realize that love is more than just chemical reactions." She admitted with a warm smile.

This time he wrapped his arms around her and brought her close to his chest in a hug, resting his head on the crook of her shoulders, knowing he would never let her go anymore. "Oh, Bones… _my_ Bones."

"_Your Bones_?" She asked a bit surprised, but not wanting to leave his embrace.

"Yeah, Bones, _my Bones_." He looked up at her. "Because after long seven years, you're finally mine."

She smiled and cupped his face gently before kissing him again. Because if she was his, that meant he was hers, and she really liked the idea of that. "_Yours._"

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**THE END**

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**Oh, the cheesy… hahaha**

**I hope you enjoyed reading this story! =)**

**I'll probably won't started another multi-chapter anytime soon – I need some vacation and I'm running out of ideas and I can't really bear writing more Hannah. **

**Thank you all so much for reading and reviewing!**


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